Thursday, February 25, 2016

Human Trafficking-So silent yet so close

I was searching on the web more about human trafficking cases in Texas because I do not feel like the media talks about it as much as it should. As I was sat this evening watching the news, I couldn't help but notice that they talked about everything from robberies, Presidential campaign, a police chase, and even complaints from people about businesses but not once did they speak about the real life dilemmas being faced in the area like human trafficking or slavery. So then I decided to do some researching and came across this article that spoke about a recent charge against two young men age 19 that forced a 15 year old girl to have sex with several men for two weeks before she escaped. Now, we assume that these "pimps" are either older or not white however in this case the men were not only young but one was hispanic and the other white. I mention this because I think that society and the media often labels certain races as criminals or highly dangerous. I wanted to mention this also because I feel that its important to see that these crimes and acts can be committed by anybody regardless of race, gender or age. I think its also important to note how easily these crimes are committed through the use of social media and the internet as we spoke about this in class today. Most of the time we are closer to our perpetuator than we think and parents need to watch what their kids are doing more than ever. In this same case, kids/teens need to be made aware of the danger that they put themselves in when they speak to strangers and add/friend people on social media just to gain attention or followers. They are putting not only themselves in danger but also their friends, family and people around them being that these perpetrators gain access to their personal life. I find it interesting that social media can often do more harm than good and unfortunately we are not safe from any of it. This needs to be given more coverage and spoken about in schools to bring further awareness to what is currently happening around us and how easily it can happen to everybody.

1 comment:

I loved that you touched on this, Lorena. The news, in my opinion, always touches on the "right now" problems, never the ongoing problems. The problem is usually talked about that one time and never spoken about again. I think that is also how life goes. We talk to people about problems once and then try and act like nothing happened and everything is ok. It's also so easy to point fingers and just assume. Social media is a place where people's lives look so incredible. People upload pictures of themselves smiling- never in their hard times. We would never think to assume bad things happen on social media. Because it's so popular and normal people just assume they can do whatever they want. It is so important to know that your whole life is basically on these things and that reflects not only on you but everyone you upload a picture with.